Jean-Paul Lemieux, Emily Carr set standards at a $14.7 million Heffel auction in Vancouver

Painting “La plage americaine” by Jean Paul Lemieux.

Photograph by: Ward Perrin
, Vancouver Sun

Vancouver — Jean-Paul Lemieux and Emily Carr set the standard at a $14.7 million Heffel auction of Canadian art Thursday at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Lemieux's 1973 painting La plage americaine sold for $1.813 million in an afternoon sale of post-war and contemporary art. Carr's 1930 oil Eagle Totem was the high point of the evening auction of Fine Canadian Art, selling for $1.638 million.

Both doubled their high estimate, and sold to determined telephone bidders.

The winning bidder for the Lemieux painting startled the audience by bidding $800,000 when the previous bid was $550,000. They then dueled with another telephone bidder before taking the painting with a hammer price of $1.55 million.

After Heffel's 17 percent commission is added, the sale price was $1.813 million, the second highest value for a Lemieux painting at auction. (All prices from now include commission.)

"It's not very often that someone will call out a huge increment jump," noted David Heffel, who runs the auction with his brother Robert.

'[But] he knew what he was doing. The buyers and the bidders know the market better than anyone, because they're the ones putting the paddles up. I think at $800,000, he thought it was good value. And in retrospect, it was."

Carr's iconic image Eagle Totem also inspired spirited bidding, with a hammer price of $1.4 million and $1.638 million after commission.

"It was very exciting," said Robert Heffel.

"We were very pleased. I was very happy for the consigner, I think they did extremely well. But at the same time, the purchaser also got the prize, so everybody's happy."

It was the sixth biggest sale of Canadian art in history. The Lawren Harris sketch Lake Superior sold for $526,000, as did J.E.H. Macdonald's Early Autumn, Montreal River, Algoma.

A.Y. Jackson's Morning, Great Bear Lake went for $409,500, and another Jackson, Encampment, Eastern Arctic, sold for $351,000. Harris's early masterpiece Building The Ice House, Hamilton, went for $380,250, as did a Paul-Emile Borduas abstract, Jeunesse, and another Lemieux painting, Le mois du juin.

There were some surprises. Edwin Holgate's luminous painting Great Bug Pond, Cache River drew a hammer price of $550,000, but that didn't meet its reserve and it was withdrawn.

A landmark Emily Carr watercolour from 1908, War Canoes, Alert Bay, sold for $351,000. But many people thought it would go much higher, including the Heffels.

"We had higher hopes for the War Canoes watercolour, considering it's a very important piece," said Robert Heffel. "The purchaser got a real prize."

E.J. Hughes paintings did well, with Englewood going for $292.500 and The Nanaimo Bastion selling for $257,400. Both were painted in 1951. A 1969 Hughes painting, Receding Tide, Departure Bay, sold for $210,600.

It was a good night for British Columbia artists. The Heffels kicked off the auction with B.C. Binning's small but delightful Two Ships Standing Off, with doubled its high estimate at $64,350. Several Gordon Smith paintings also sold in the $40,000 to $60,000 range.

Several of the top items in the sale came from one consigner.

"We were lucky we got this one major estate from Quebec,"said David Heffel.

"Both the Lemieux [paintings] were a part of it, as well as the Borduas, which did really well. The nucleus of our great sales the last few years have been built on foundations of estate consignments that have great paintings fresh to the market, often bought almost directly from the artist."

Records were set for Christopher Pratt's Landing (which sold for $198,900) and Daphne Odjig's Awakening of Spring ($70,200).

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